A Thousand Splendid Suns
By Khaled Hosseini

Please join The Advocates' Book Club on Friday, March 9 at 12:00pm at The Advocates' offices at 330 Second Avenue South, Suite 800, Minneapolis for a discussion of A Thousand Splendid Suns, a breathtaking story by author Khaled Hosseini set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years. From the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding, it puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of the country in intimate and human terms. The book chronicles the stories of women and girls experiencing violence in public, as well as in their homes. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them. Click here for the Discussion Questions.

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky 
By Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, with Judy A. Bernstein

When: Friday, June 8^th, 12:00 – 1:00pm
Where: The Advocates for Human Rights, 330 - 2nd Ave. S., Suite 800, Minneapolis

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky is a true story of three "Lost Boys of Sudan," who recall their harrowing journey out of the devastation of war and into safety. Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak were raised among the Dinka tribe of Sudan. Their world was an insulated, close-knit community of grass-roofed cottages, cattle herders, and tribal councils, until the government-armed Murahiliin began attacking their villages. All under the age of 7, they fled. Their journey took them over 1,000 miles across a war-ravaged country, through landmine-sown paths, crocodile-infested waters, and extremes of hunger, thirst, and disease. Even the refugee camps they eventually filtered through offered little respite from the brutality they were fleeing.

Outcasts United 
By Warren St. John

When: Thurs, July 12^th, 5:00 -6:00pm OR Fri, July 13^th, 11:30 - 12:30 pm
Where: Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA), 2400 - 3rd Ave. S., Minneapolis
Join us at MIA for a guided tour by Carreen Heegaard and a conversation about issues explored in the text and visual art throughout the Institute.

For this summer companion book, The Advocates is partnering with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (www.artsmia.org). To read more about the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' Book Tours, click here. 

Outcasts United is the story of a soccer team comprised of young male refugees, the remarkable woman who coaches them, and the town where they live – a once-sleepy southern hamlet that has been upended by the process of refugee resettlement. It is a tale about resilience, the power of one person to make a difference, and the daunting challenge of creating community in a place where people seem to have little in common.

Please RSVP to sherder@advrights.org with your preference for tour date/time.

Praying for Sheetrock
By Melissa Fay Greene

When: September 11, 2012, 12:00 – 1:00pm
Where: The Advocates for Human Rights, 330 - 2nd Ave. S., Suite 800, Minneapolis
Join us for a panel discussion on voting rights, both in a contemporary and historical context. 

The award-winning book Praying for Sheetrock is the true story rural black residents living in the isolated, coastal beauty of McIntosh County, Georgia. It is the saga of how, thanks to the leadership of a black shop-steward-turned-county-commissioner named Thurnell Alston, together with Legal Services lawyers, challenged the corrupt leadership through several means, including a voting-rights case. Such "second generation" voting-rights cases dealt with the reality that although black individuals had the right to vote, they faced attempted “dilution” of their vote through various devices such as at-large districts (so that whites could outvote blacks), runoff primaries, and other measures. When the Voting Rights Act was renewed in 1982, vote-dilution was made illegal, even if it was unintentional.

The Tortilla Curtain
By T.C. Boyle

In his most popular novel, T.C. Boyle confronts the often controversial issue of undocumented immigration head-on, illuminating through a poignant, gripping story the people on both sides of the issue, the haves and the have-nots. Boyle weaves a narrative of two couples and a violent chance encounter that brings them together, instigating a chain of events that eventually culminates in a harrowing confrontation. The novel shifts back and forth between the two couples, giving voice to each of the four main characters as their lives become inextricably intertwined and their worlds collide.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

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Other Recommended Reads in 2012:
The Advocates will not hold events around the following books, but will post Discussion Guides to encourage book clubs and individuals to read these books and consider the human rights themes explored within.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the 1969 autobiography about the early years of African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. During the course of the book, Maya is transformed from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.

Little Bee
By Chris Cleave

Little Bee is a dual narrative about a Nigerian asylum seeker and a British magazine editor, who meet during the oil conflict in the Niger Delta, and are re-united in England several years later. The novel examines the treatment of refugees by the asylum system, as well as issues of colonialism, globalization, political violence and personal accountability.

Night
By Elie Wiesel

Night is a classic work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father, Shlomo, in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of WWII. 

What the Body Remembers
By Shauna Singh Baldwin

What The Body Remembers is a novel out of the rich culture of India and the brutal drama of the 1947 Partition about two women married to the same man. The book details the complex relationship between these two women and their husband as India lurches toward independence and drastic change.